Just a Copy
by 3mlm
Summary: Why is Dr. Leekie visiting the Dollhouse, and what does he have up his sleeve this time?
1. Chapter 1

Adelle couldn't pinpoint the origin of her anxiety as she carefully studied the man standing in front of her. This was a unique proposition, but she couldn't see and harm in it- at least not on the surface. She shrugged of her anxiety for the moment. This engagement had been approved by the high ups in Rossum, with rumors that the founder had signed off on it. It wasn't like she could back out on this arrangement.

"I assure you, Ms. Dewitt," the man said, "this is a completely voluntary procedure, and no harm will come to the subject. Your company was recommended to us very highly, and we have no desire to break your trust."

"I understand that Dr. Leekie," Adelle replied, pouring two cups of tea into her signature green teacups. "It's simply that this is quite a different situation. We are not usually in the business of long-term engagements; and it should be known that there are some definite risks in transferring over an entire consciousness."

"I know the risks, Ms. Dewitt," Leekie replied, his voice tightening just slightly in impatience at the woman's cool and collected demeanor. "This is a matter of the most importance, and we would like to get a move on it so that our little friend can be placed as quickly as possible."

"Very well," Adelle finally conceded, "But you should know that our technology is fluid. It needs check-ups, which is why we normally lean toward short term engagements, and contracts. Your situation is a bit worrying to us, but I suppose we'll have to make do." Make do was a simple statement. Topher was floored by the challenge; to make a long term imprint of someone, and place it onto a different body without changing a single memory. He had been babbling fervently about the possibilities and difficulties of things feeling different for the personality. Before that he had always changed the imprint to feel comfortable in the body he was designing them for, but this was madness. He had said that it was even stranger than imprinting Mr. Ballard with an imprint of himself.

As Aldous Leekie took leave, she was struck again by a sudden chill running up her spine. Something was off here; something dangerous was going on, and all she knew was that she did not want to be a part of it.

* * *

Topher Brink sighed deeply as he glanced at the imprint wedge. What they were asking for was completely insane. How was he supposed to edit his most difficult imprint ever, and put it into a new active within 24 hours? He could hardly prepare for it well. He had found out a few things about the imprint from the client, but he knew that it would be really hard and that he would have to code like mad to finish up the project in time. I mean how was he supposed to not change habits? And to imprint a scientist no less with an entire personality that is unchanged. A scientist would know her own heart rate. She would know her exact weight and metabolism. Sure, he could edit out those memories to be slightly different, but that would take a certain finesse, and time that he honestly did not have to work with.

"Ivy!" he called, out the frustration overwhelming him, "Do we have any twinkies?"

Ivy sighed and got up from her table to walk over to the cabinet. "Couldn't you just check yourself?" she asked in frustration, realizing as she said it that argument at this point would just be futile. But it was too late, she had already set off another one of her "boss's" power trips.

"Who's the genius in this room exactly?" Topher asked, his tone become a bit snarky. "I don't see you getting asked to program entire personalities in a day."

"If you just let someone help you for once," Ivy said, "then maybe you wouldn't have to worry about getting all that coding done."

Topher was going to brush it off, but then when he heard the logic in Ivy's plan, he grinned. "You're right!" he exclaimed excitedly, hopping up and heading over to the stored imprints. "I'll have Adelle send up Victor so that I can imprint him with the imprint of myself. It will work just like when I went in to infiltrate Bennet's lab!"

"That's not what I meant," Ivy muttered to herself as she set the twinkie down on his desk, and walked away.

**~Hey guys, sorry about this chapter being kind of a filler. I had exams, and I'm still trying to flesh out the backstory of my OC before I introduce her to the story.~**


	2. Chapter 2

Rebekah was breathing heavily as she walked over to the table to grab her phone. She had been working out when the phone rang, and she hadn't been thrilled to have to leave her treadmill to answer it.

"Bekka," she answered as politely as she could, unable to keep a slightly annoyed tone from creeping into her voice. She listened as the voice on the other end spoke for a few minutes, her heart rate slowing from the rest, and then speeding up again for a very different reason. "Yes, yes sir," she replied to the voice before hanging up the phone. Her time was now. She could finally make a difference.

As a little girl Rebekah had gone through a lot of pain, and honestly she had not had any friends. Her "sister" Rachel had always been distant. While Rachel was brought up going to the best private schools offered, Rebekah had always had a mediocre education. Rachel was given nice clothes, and Rebekah got whatever was least expensive. Neither of them really received any love, but it was easy to see who had a better childhood.

Rebekah had grown up hearing about the clones, especially Cosima. When she was good, they used to show her pictures, and she got to dress up as her. She still remembered when she was five years old, and they gave her her first video of Cosima. She had spent weeks trying to imitate her accent, and she watched it at least once a day. It wasn't all nice and happy for her though. Cosima didn't get injured very often as a child, but when she did... let's just say that the consequences weren't very good for Rebekah.

* * *

Delphine blinked drowsily as she lifted her head from the bed, and looked over at her girlfriend. She had been awakened from her slumber by Cosima's hand stroking her hair.

"Oh, sorry," Cosima apologized with a little grin as she looked down at her.

"Non, ma chérie," Delphine replied, taking Cosima's hand in her own. "Don't worry about it. How are you feeling this morning?"

Cosima glanced up at the beeping heart monitor next to the bed. "Not better," she admitted. "I haven't been coughing too badly, but, when I do, it feels worse. You shouldn't worry about that though. You need to go home and get some sleep. I'll be fine here without you for a few hours. Alison said that she'd come and keep me company if you want her to. Just give her a call."

"D'accord," Delphine relented, sitting up in her chair next to the hospital bed. "I'll give Alison a call and get a little bit of rest. Just don't think you'll be getting rid of me for long, my love."


	3. Chapter 3

Dr. Aldous Leekie sat at his desk, looking over the work examples of the technician at the Dollhouse. He had heard that the young Topher Brink was the best in his field, and he hoped that he would prove to be more competent than the last person he had worked with. Organizing the replacement of Elizabeth Childs has turned out too easy too be true, and that was what it had proved to be. It had been his first time using the Dollhouse for anything other than pleasure, so he had simply gone with the closest house, not realizing that the levels of technology and competence ranged diversely between houses.

It had become evident to the Neolutionists that Beth was learning too much, not just about the science of herself and her fellow genetic identicals, but also about the people behind it. They had been willing to risk the damage at first, but when the police woman went as far as to shoot one of their employees, they knew that she needed to be stopped. However they didn't want to ruin the dynamic of the little group that the subjects had created within themselves. The clone club. A ridiculous organization, but a fascinating concept. That the genetic identicals which had been spread apart through not only countries, but also different continents managed to organize a system of about half a dozen of them that were in contact with each other. It was practically unheard of for an international experiment to become so interconnected.

So when Elizabeth Childs learned too much, they implemented the backup plan that had been put into place just in case something like this had happened. They took her true identical, not just someone with the same face, but someone with the same identification sequence, and inserted her into Beth's life, practically a seamless transition. They removed her memories of Maggie Chen, and inserted a blind panic instead. An irrational shot, with her partner helping her cover it up, just as he had done in real life. As seamless as the transition was, it went downhill from there. The guilt over the shooting caused Beth to rely more heavily on the prescriptions, becoming more distant from not only her monitor, but also the other clones that she was friendly with. Especially Alison Hendrix.

Alison Hendrix was an enigma of sorts. From the outside looking in, life seemed practically perfect for the uptight subject. Before the incident with Beth's double, the woman's facade never seemed to crack. Even Donnie never reported seeing her lose it, and he had known her for almost two decades.

They still weren't sure what exactly happened, but at some point Beth realized that she wasn't herself. Some obvious incompetence on the part of the Dollhouse, but in all fairness it was much better than having the identical go in and try to act as if she was the subject on her own. Whatever happened, the Dollhouse had reported an elevated heart rate, and what they called a glitch, a momentary lapse into Active state. That was an hour before the incident. Teams went in to get her, but she was on the move, eventually ending up at Huxley Station. Then her heartbeat was suddenly gone. They had decided against putting Beth back into her life when they realized that there was a witness that had seen everything.

It was obviously a surprise when Paul Dierden continued to report on his subject's actions, but the Neolutionists decided to stay out of it until they began to suspect that the impostor herself was the one who had been killing off the other clones. They still weren't sure who the newly discovered identical was other than the name that she called herself, but her arrival into the picture had changed the dynamic drastically. For the subjects, the odds were even higher than before, and the pressure that was put on them was, from a scientific standpoint, completely fascinating. The loss of Delphine Cormier was, of course, very frustrating, but it added another level to the mystery. As a very promising immunologist, it was hard to believe that she would leave all of her opportunities with her colleagues to help out a subject. They couldn't help but wonder if she had something up her sleeve.


	4. Chapter 4

Alison arrived not long after she received the call, going into the room and sitting beside Cosima's bed. She had on an impassive face, but her slight anxiety was given away by the tapping of her foot on the floor.

"Christ, Alison!" Cosima finally exclaimed after a couple minutes. "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to keep up that damned beat on the floor?"

Alison immediately stopped tapping her foot and glanced up at Cosima. "Don't give that, Cosima." she said, her voice tight. "Don't pretend that this is just some normal thing. You're sick; I could be sick; Sarah could be sick. Even that precious little girl Kira could be sick. So you know what? You better not die on us, because we need you."

The room went silent as the two women avoided each other's glances. "And I can't lose you too," Alison added quietly, reaching over with a shaking hand and taking one of Cosima's.

Cosima gently squeezed her friend's hand. "I know," she murmured "I'm so sorry about what happened to Beth. You just need to know that this might happen, and to be prepared for it. Nobody lives forever. I don't want to leave any of you. Not any of you guys. I don't even want to think about having to leave Delphine."

Alison breathed in a shuddering breath before straightening her spine. "You'd better not be thinking so negatively," she said decisively, her facade returning. "Now honestly, do you need me to get you anything? I know you hate to inconvenience people, but I'm here to help." Helping was what Alison was good at. When she was no longer useful, she was nothing.

Cosima smiled slightly. "You can stop being such a downer and figure out something to do," she answered. "Do you think that you're the only one that's bored here?"

* * *

Delphine had gone home to the apartment that she and Cosima had been renting so that they could be close to Sarah and Alison while Cosima was sick. She didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to give up hope on her girlfriend of making a full recovery. All that she knew was that she was not ready to give her up to the mysterious disease that she was suffering from. She was going to take a shower and then only sleep for long enough to convince Cosima that she was rested up enough for Cosima to let her stay at the hospital with her. She was startled when their home phone rang, startling her out of her reverie. "Bonjour?" she answered, her voice turning up slight at the end as she wondered who would possibly be calling their private number.

"Bonjour, Ms. Cormier," the all too familiar voice replied, sending a shiver up the French woman's spine.

"Aldous," she replied curtly, shuddering in distaste as she spit out his name. "Why are you calling me? What more could you possibly want? Your "experiment" is dying."

Aldous Leekie grinned at his end of the line; this conversation was going exactly as he had hoped. "Yes, but what if she didn't have to?" he replied, his calm voice imbued with a certain malicious hint of pride.

Delphine froze, her heart racing. "Aldous," she said, her voice almost trembling with emotion. "You give that girl the cure if you have it. Do you hear me? If you can save that beautiful woman that you already hurt so much, you do it."

Dr. Leekie chuckled softly, "Oh my innocent French beauty," he murmured into the phone. "You have no idea the lengths that we are willing to go to." Then he abruptly hung up the phone, leaving Delphine hanging on his words.

For reasons that she couldn't express, Delphine was more worried than before, and, even under the warm water of the shower, she couldn't stop shivering.


End file.
